Nicolas Cage Talks Burton’s “Gutsy” Superman

AfterSuperman Returnsand Man of Steel, it’s probably easy to look back and say you could have made a much better Superman movie. Thus is the problem for Nicolas Cage, the man who could have played Big Blue in Tim Burton’s attempt to bring Supes back to the big screen in the 1990s.

In speaking with the UK’s Metro while promoting The Croods, Cage once again addressed the failed production:

Look, I’m not going to be one of these guys that’s going to be, like, lamenting things. But is Tim Burton one of my favourite directors? Yes. Did I see some of the drawings of where he wanted to go? Yes. And I will tell you, they were fantastic and it would have been a mind-blowing experience. Did I have a concept of how to play the character? Yes, and I can tell you it would have been gutsy. So maybe Warner Brothers got scared because they had two artists that weren’t afraid to take chances.

I may like Superman Returns for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with the superhero genre, and I may not hate Man of Steel despite it being almost 100% devoid of fun. Still, those movies what you would call exciting or challenging by any stretch.

Looking back, Tim Burton’s Batman Returns is easily the best Batman movie to hit cinemas. Now if that Burton would have shown up, along with 90s Cage, well, that would have been a Superman picture. If only…